You have money to felicitate KKR but not to compensate poor, HC raps WB govt

, June 5: The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday rapped the

government for failing to provide compensation to the victims of Aila storm in the Sunderbans in May 2009. Justice Dipankar Dutta said the government had money to felicitate the members of the Kolkata Knight Riders team for winning the Indian Premier League cricket tournament but not to provide compensation to the poor.

Aurobindo Dhali, whose family was affected in the storm in 2009 decided to move the court after the state government failed to provide the compensation. When Justice Dutta asked the counsel about it, the latter said the government could not do so because of financial crisis.

Many including women and a child were injured in the police lathicharge

The judge then hit back asking how the government was managing the felicitation of the Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens if it had shortage of funds. "What kind of public welfare is this," he asked. The counsel in his defence said the government could not compensate the victims because of some problem in the application procedure.

The felicitation ceremony saw a big chaos outside the Eden Gardens with the police resorting to lathicharge to control the crowd. Some of the ministers of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, ignored that there was any chaos with Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim even asking the media not to show 'negative' things. "Otherwhise, how can Bengal go ahead of Gujarat," he asked.

Oneindia News